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Article Dans Une Revue Nuclear Technology Année : 2021

Revisiting Safety Culture: The Benefits of a New Cultural Analysis Framework for Safety Management

Résumé

The concept of “Safety Culture” is a key element of many initiatives intended to improve the safety of nuclear facilities. Focusing on human and organizational factors, “Safety Culture” concept analysis emphasizes the importance of the perceptions, interpretations and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations. It is commonly believed that acting on structure and organization can increase safety culture beyond a company’s overall performance, particularly in terms of risk management. But how is it possible to ensure that a new safety policy or organizational infrastructure really does promote safe and reliable operations without unforeseen and undesired cultural consequences? How, when providing followup recommendations, is it possible to assess if there has been improvement in terms of safety culture? This paper proposes a “cultural analysis framework” to identify and understand cultural elements that have an impact on reliability and safety of activities within organizations. Based on a case study of the introduction of a safety management system in a nuclear facility, our original “cultural analysis framework” will be presented. It examines three levels: 1/ the macro level: Cultural background and its inclusion within the existing organizational culture; 2/ the meso level: Collective aspects of the system within an organization; 3/ the micro level: Collective and social life (modes of socialization, relationships, trust, practices sharing), as well as symbolic and identity dimensions. These three levels of analysis make it possible to break down the topic of "safety culture," an issue too complex to be addressed directly, into manageable categories. These three levels are complementary; taken together, they can help develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural aspects of safety in an organization. In conclusion, the paper advances a socio-comprehensive approach to safety as a means to identify "reasonable" actions potentially beneficial for anyone seeking to improve risk management.
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Dates et versions

hal-03447874 , version 1 (24-11-2021)

Licence

Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Pas de modification

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Elsa Gisquet, Sophie Beauquier, Emilie Poulain. Revisiting Safety Culture: The Benefits of a New Cultural Analysis Framework for Safety Management. Nuclear Technology, 2021, 207 (9), pp.1410 - 1422. ⟨10.1080/00295450.2020.1868891⟩. ⟨hal-03447874⟩
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